No. 5 Tennessee falls flat against South Carolina, 63-59

Tennessee needed more than just Dalton Knecht Tuesday night against visiting South Carolina. The Vols didn’t get it while falling flat in a 63-59 upset loss to the Gamecocks at Thompson-Boling Arena.

Knecht scored a team-high 31 points to lead Tennessee (15-5, 5-2 SEC), including 13 points in the final two minutes, 54 seconds, but couldn’t get enough help in the Vols’ lowest-scoring game of the season. Santiago Vescovi had 10 points and Tobe Awaka and Jonas Aidoo added six each while combing for 12 rebounds. 

But Aidoo, Tennessee’s second leading scorer this season, finished 2-for-8 from the field. Zakai Zeigler went 0-for-6 in 33 minutes. The Vols as a team finished 12-for-20 at the foul line, a staggering 8-for-20 on layups and 0-for-1 on dunks. 

Knecht didn’t make a shot from the field in the second half for the first 17 minutes, but got going with back-to-back buckets starting at the 2:54 mark to get Tennessee within five. The sequence was preceded by two Knecht missed two free throws with 3:28 left.

He scored again with 1:44 left to get the Vols within four, then made one of two free throws with 1:07 left to get it back to a one-possession game at 56-53. It was his fourth missed free throw of the night and the seventh for the Vols.

South Carolina hit the dagger on the other end, with Ta’Lon Cooper hitting a corner three to go up six with 39.6 seconds left. Cooper led the Gamecocks (18-3, 6-2) with 18 points while BJ Mack added 16 more.

Cooper hit a corner three with 5:05 left to put the Gamecocks up six, after the Vols had gone scoreless for 2:21 and made just one of their previous 12 shots. Tennessee went more than six minutes without a made shot from the field while the Gamecocks stretched the lead to seven with 3:28 left.

Tennessee didn’t score for over three minutes at one point in the second half, from the 7:12 mark until 4:05, before Zeigler hit one of two free throws.

South Carolina finished 10-for-29 from the 3-point line while Tennessee went just 5-for-21.

Vols trailed by four at halftime, after sluggish first half

Knecht scored 13 points in the first half, going 6-for-13 from the field, but his Tennessee teammates combined to shoot just 6-for-20. 

South Carolina started the game with a 7-0 lead after the Vols missed their first seven shots over the first three minutes, 38 seconds. Knecht hit a 3-pointer at the 16:12 mark to open the scoring, the start of Tennessee’s own 7-0 run to tie the game.

Aidoo started the game with a missed layup, the first of six layups the Vols would miss in the first half. He picked up two fouls and played just seven minutes before halftime, going 1-for-4 from the field.

Zeigler was scoreless in the first half, missing all three shots he attempted and turning the ball over twice. Santiago Vescovi scored five points and Tobe Awaka had four points and five rebounds off the bench to help lift the Vols. South Carolina got 10 points from Cooper and nine more from Mack in the first half.

Up Next: No. 5 Tennessee at No. 10 Kentucky, Saturday, 8:30 p.m. ET, ESPN

Tennessee now turns its attention to Kentucky, facing the Wildcats at Rupp Arena in Lexington on Saturday night in an 8:30 Eastern Time start on ESPN. 

The Wildcats (15-4, 5-2 SEC), who host Florida on Wednesday, dropped four spots in this week’s Associated Press Top 25 after the 79-62 loss at South Carolina last week. They also lost 97-92 at Texas A&M in overtime on January 13, lost at home to UNC Wilmington on December 2 and lost to Kansas on a natural court in November.

The best win of the season for the Wildcats came against North Carolina, 87-83 on a neutral floor in December.

Kentucky is ranked No. 20 overall in the KenPom ratings, ranked No. 9 in adjusted offensive efficiency, scoring 119.8 points per possession, and No. 70 in adjusted defensive efficiency, giving up 100.6 points per possession.